Every garage in Lancashire has been given guidance for dealing with incidents, encouraging them to join the Forecourt Watch scheme to record incidents and capture evidence, help speed up investigations and make sure businesses recover their money.

Mr Grunshaw, Lancashire Police and Crime Commissioner, said: “Garages across the county were seeing more and more drive-offs – and owners clearly wanted to work more closely with the police to reduce this trend.

“Now, I’ve worked with the Constabulary to develop a policy which will help not only businesses but also reduce demand on the police, cutting down on wasted time whist hopefully ensuring more criminals are caught and brought to justice.”

Chief Insp Abid Khan, from Lancashire Constabulary, said: “Lancashire Police has worked closely with our business community to develop the new procedure, and I hope it will provide confidence to the forecourt community.”